QMI-INS-026 · 80 AH
Second Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān
نقش عثمان بن وهران الثاني
Wādī al-ʿUsaylah
- يداود إنا جعلنك
- خليفة في الأرض
- لتحكم بين الناس
- بالحق ولا تتبع الهوى
- فيضلك عن سبيل الله إن الذين يضلون
- عن سبيل الله لهم عذاب شديد بما نسوا يوم
- الحساب وكتب عثمن (عثمان) بن
- وهرن (وهران) في سنة ثمنين (ثمانين)
“O David, We have made you a vicegerent (khalīfah) on the earth, so judge between the people with truth, and do not follow desire, for it will lead you astray from the path of God. Indeed those who stray from the path of God will have a severe punishment for having forgotten the Day of Reckoning.” [Q 38:26]. And ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān wrote [this] in the year eighty.
The second of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān's three Qurʾanic inscriptions at this site, quoting Sūrat Ṣād (38:26) — a verse addressed to the Prophet David (Dāwūd) about just rule, notable given the political resonance of "vicegerent on the earth" language in Umayyad-era inscriptions.
Source: al-Rāshid, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Kitābāt Islāmīyah min Makkah al-Mukarramah: Dirāsah wa-Taḥqīq. al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah, 1995, pp. 26–29, 55–57, 60–66, 160–164; al-Ḥārithī, Nāṣir ibn ʿAlī, and ʿĀdil Muḥammad Nūr Ghubāshī. "Nuqūsh Islāmīyah Mubakkirah bi-Wādī al-ʿUsaylah bi-Makkah al-Mukarramah." ʿĀlam al-Makhṭūṭāt wa-al-Nawādir 2, no. 1 (Muḥarram–Jumādā al-Ākhirah 1418 AH / May–October 1997): 12–56.